User blog:MetaMachine/MetaCriticMachine Discussion! Are April Fool battles good?
Hello everyone! MetaMachine here! and this is going to be a different kind of blog as i'm not reviewing any specific battle or doing a top ten of any kind but rather this is going to be a bit of a discussion of a tradition has stuck with the rap battle community for quite some time now, And that is April Fools Day. Now if you have been in the community you know what i'm talking about and in case you don't, I'll make this quick. Every April Fools Day since 2014 rap battle makers have made dumb/funny battles making fun of the tropes that we have outgrown as we got older and became better rap battle makers. And i think as time goes on April Fools battles have became more and more absurd and because i have been a watcher of fanmade rap battles for a while now and have recently joined the community, I i have decided to take on this subject and talk about both side of what it is like as the viewer and the writer of these battles. So with that, Let's start the discussion! So when did this start? Well, 2014 was the first year these battles started popping up but since they were all released at the same day i can't really say who thought of the idea (nor do i know for certain they would want the credit.) But ERBP, ERBOC, and VGRB among other series made battles that were short and purposely made bad as a joke. But the battles are short and if some people were mad at these joke videos ERBP release a real battle the very next day. (Richard Simmons vs David Hasselhoff if you were wondering) 2015 comes by and with it are new April Fools battles with ERBP and CMRB making their second battle for the holiday and being the only ones from 2014 to make a battle for 2015 with new people like Vinny, ERBOCP, and URBoF throwing their hats into the ring. Not much changes here except the fact that the battles are getting a bit longer with battles this year averaging as 2-3 minutes with only one battle from 2014 over 3 minutes. But these battles are still kinda short so it still gets a pass. I think they should be shorter but as long as they just short and quick to make it's fine. I mean, they won't get much longer right? Right?... 2016. This was when i think the April Fools battles started to get out of hand with lots of people starting to combine the April Fools Day tradition with everyone's favorite kind of rap battle tradition: royales! with battles like Kefka vs Giygas 3, Steve vs Joe 2, and Yuno Gasai vs Diddy Kong Pointing At An Unknown Object With His Hat Backwards (Yeah, that happened). and 2017 only got crazier with Furries vs Bronies from Justin, Squward's Suicide vs Dead Bart 3, and The Nutshack vs Berry B. Benson. with all the battle above being royales getting a lot of people in the community getting involved and getting RIDICULOUSLY long. and when i mean long, i mean 5-30 minutes! imma show you what the lengths of some of these battles are. and for the sake of this picture i'm going to use battles from any year but most will be 2016 and 2017. to put this into perspective. The longest battle that i can find from the community that is a SERIOUS battle is Moleman's Scott Pilgrim vs The World. which on Soundcloud the audio is 25 minutes and 15 seconds. Yeah. and i've found 3 battles that are longer then this and as of writing this i don’t know how many April Fools battles they'll be WHO KNOWS what 2018 will bring!? Now. normally i wouldn't mind this. Making rap battles can be hard and having a break is fine. But a lot of the time, Update videos will come out saying "Sorry i haven't been making rap battles, School/College/Family has been busy and i can't really have a set schedule" and i get that. While it's not the same i try to make at least one of these blogs once a month and it can be hard. (heck, i didn't make one for March since this is coming out on the first of April) Don't think i'm someone who sees the rap battle makers as machines who HAVE to make rap battles for my enjoyment. Some of the people in the community are pretty good friends and the only friends that i have. But i will point out it's kinda a contradiction when people say this but when April 1st comes around they have enough time make a 14 minute royale of cute anime girls! (That doesn't exist yet but do you see where i'm getting at?) But do AF battles need to stop? Despite what i've been saying this whole time, No. I don't see them as a infestation that needs to be terminated. I kinda see it as a, "This is getting out of hand and we need to thin the herd" problem. they are nice things about these kinds of battles. These kinds of battles are fun to write for. Simply because we can do whatever we want with these battles because there ARE a joke. If they are characters that we can't find a opponent or doesn't have material for a full battle, they could be used for a AF battle. I even helped write a few battles for the holiday and they are going to be my writing debut. They are not the first battles that i helped write but they will still be the first thing with the MetaMachine credit and these battles are some of the most fun that i’ve had writing a battle laughing at all the jokes that were being made. Know that i am in nowhere telling what rap battle makers can and can’t do. It’s their series and i have no authority over them. But i do want to give my thoughts on what has happened from what started as small joke videos turning into huge projects that can take months to happen. But i i’m going to say that 2 months ago when i started planning for this review i was going to be a lot more negative. But since then i help write a bunch of battles and get the appeal of it. If i didn’t write for any of them i would just think they are dumb and shouldn’t be bothered but helping write for these battles did show me a new light. But i do still think that there AF battles have gotten bigger then they need to be and there are problems that need to get fixed and i see two solutions that would make April Fools battles better in MY opinion. 1: Make them shorter then they are getting now. I'd say the biggest one of these battles should be like a royale from 3 to MAYBE 5 minutes so they don't take up THAT much time and we can still focus on the real battles that we want to work on. If people don't like most serious royales that are 3-6 minute will you be interested in a 26 minute royale that was made bad on purpose? I get that they are jokes but battles like that i think are jokes taken a little bit too far. Or 2: make a dumb suggestion. But make it into a semi-real battle. Goku vs Uncle Grandpa is my favorite battle of April Fools because it is still a BATTLE. It has some decent lines with pretty good editing and pleasantly surprised me with how good it was. (at least compared to a average April Fools battle) and a lot of people are starting to do this like Frenzy who wanted to do this in 2016 with Patrick vs Michelangelo. These battle will still be enjoyable to laugh at but are still videos that anyone can watch and get a laugh from it while joke with jokes from the community are only funny to the people in the community (When i showed two of my siblings one the the AF battles that i helped write they were just confused the entire time while i was laughing and making jokes when we were watching the battle). But these are just my ideas. If you like April Fools Battles that is perfectly fine. Opinions exist for a reason. If you like these kinds of battle tell me why. i'm just saying my side of this topic. So that's that. If you want to see my last review (which is a another holiday) click this link if you want to see my review of Penny vs Connie by ERBOC. Tell me what you think in the comments of this discussion and if you want other discussions like this. I take suggestions so if there is a rap battle, top ten/five list, or some topic related to rap battles that you want me to do let me know! And until then, See you in the next review! Category:Blog posts